The International Chemical Biology Society is pleased to announce the winners of our annual ICBS Young Chemical Biologist and Global Lectureship awards.  Awardees will deliver their award lectures at the ICBS2024 Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada this October 27-30, 2024.  

About the Awards:  
To recognize and advance the career development of young investigators in chemical biology, the ICBS has established a special session at its annual meeting to showcase up-and-coming chemical biologists through the ICBS Young Chemical Biologist Awards. Awardees are scheduled to speak in the Rising Stars session and will be further recognized for their achievements with a certificate and monetary award of $1,000 USD to each awardee.  

The ICBS Global Lectureship award was created to recognize distinguished investigators whose research has significantly advanced and impacted the field of chemical biology. Selection of the awardee is based on their impact on chemical biology research, service to the field, and demonstrated leadership in continuing the advancement of chemical biology around the globe. The award lecture will be delivered at this year’s ICBS conference and the awardee will serve as an ambassador of ICBS to promote chemical biology globally.  In addition to these opportunities, the award recipient will be highlighted on the ICBS website and presented an award certificate and a monetary award of $2,000 USD.  

2024  ICBS Global Lectureship Awardee:

Paul Workman, FRS FMedSci

The Institute of Cancer Research, United Kingdom

Prof. Workman is being recognized for his outstanding contributions and exceptional achievements in cancer drug discovery, as well as being a role model and leader to the global chemical biology community. Prof. Workman is currently the Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London. Previously, he served for seven years as ICR’s President and Chief Executive. For 19 years, he was the Director of ICR’s Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cancer Therapeutics Unit. Before joining ICR, Prof. Workman served in the cancer drug discovery leadership team at Zeneca (now AstraZeneca), where he oversaw the multidisciplinary research that led to the discovery of one of the first approved small-molecule kinase inhibitors—the epidermal growth factor receptor (EFGR) inhibitor gefitinib. Prior to AZ, he was appointed as Professor of Experimental Therapeutics and Director of Laboratory Research in the CRUK Department of Medical Oncology, Glasgow University. Earlier from 1976-1990, he founded and led the Pharmacology Laboratory in the MRC Clinical Oncology Unit, Cambridge University. Prof. Workman contributed to and led numerous examples of successful drug discovery and development projects that fully integrated chemical biology, as reflected by the more than 550 research articles that he has authored (H-index:119). Notably, Prof. Workman is particularly well-recognized as a pioneer in the discovery of innovative inhibitors targeting the molecular chaperone Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) and the transcription factor Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1). The collaborative discovery of some of the first examples of potent and selective small-molecule inhibitors targeting the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) family is another major career highlight of Prof. Workman. Following on from his work on PI3Ks, Workman’s team played a critical instrumental role in the discovery of the AKT inhibitor capivasertib, recently approved for advanced, hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients with PI3K pathway mutations. Furthermore, Prof. Workman has relentlessly pursued the establishment of criteria for high-quality chemical probes and served as a founder and current Director of the highly impactful Chemical Probes Portal – a key ‘go-to’ resource for biomedical researchers. In addition to his impressive scientific track record, Prof. Workman has contributed extensively to the training of next-generation chemical biologists and drug discoverers and the promotion of chemical biology research. As a serial scientific entrepreneur, Prof. Workman has also been instrumental in several start-up companies. His remarkable achievements have been recognized by numerous honors and awards and he is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society, Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Medicine, European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is also a Life Fellow of CRUK.

Title of the Global Lectureship award lecture: “Adventures discovering chemical probes and clinical drugs: protein and lipid kinases, molecule chaperones and transcription factors.”

2024  ICBS Young Chemical Biologists Awardees:

James Checco, Ph.D.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. Dr. Checco is being recognized for his lab’s research on the utilization of chemical biology approaches to probe endogenous peptide-receptor interactions. Recent efforts from the Checco lab include developing affinity-driven azo coupling methods to study peptide-receptor interactions, unraveling signaling networks involving endogenous D-amino acid-containing neuropeptides, and evaluating the effects of anesthetic administration on endogenous peptides in the central nervous system.

Award lecture:“Unraveling the signaling mechanisms of endogenous cell-cell signaling peptides”

Keriann M. Backus, Ph.D.

University of California Los Angeles, USA

Dr. Backus is being recognized for her lab’s research focusing on the development and application of innovative chemoproteomic reagents and methods to address compelling questions in biochemistry and chemical biology. Recent efforts from the Backus lab include the chemoproteomic technology development towards the proteome-wide delineation of functional cysteines and multi-omic approaches to pinpoint functional and therapeutically relevant genetic variants.

Award lecture: “Defining the functional cysteinome with multidimensional chemoproteomics”.

Michael J. Booth, Ph.D.

University College London, UK

Dr. Booth is being recognized for his lab’s research work on the development and application of light-activated nucleic acids. Recent efforts from the Booth lab include the precision targeting of synthetic cells using light-activated DNA, orthogonally controllable photocaged-antisense oligonucleotides, and remote control of synthetic to living cell communication.

Award lecture: “Remote-controlled nucleic acids for biology and medicine